


Weyr Tragedy

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Another Chance: Chronicles of DC/Pern [4]
Category: DCU (Comics), Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Multi, trauma and shock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 09:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The newly established Weyr at Fort is called to protect a convoy from the Dock on a day when nothing seems to go right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weyr Tragedy

[4.15.7/14 AL]

Nyassa was shaking her head as she walked into David's office… rough hewn still, with only the barest shaping done by the cutters… and pulled the territory map out. "David, I know you said we'd stop at the outer growing areas for the Fort proper, because we're still getting accustomed to the currents and flow as a team of our own, but the supply train didn't make it in on time. Desi just contacted me, to make me aware of it," she told her partner. She had the queen most likely to rise next, between projected cycles and injuries that had put the others off theirs… and everyone knew David was most capable.

Sean's original plan for leadership rotation had been quietly set aside by mob vote; Fort was giving too many headaches to the newly settled Weyr for them to manage a solid rotation. Nyassa and her fellow queens were quietly in agreement over Nyassa's leadership… unless a gold proved all their calculations wrong… and they were of the opinion that Polenth's rider was strongest.

It hadn't taken long for the pair of riders to find an easy accord in their ability to work as a team.

"So they didn -- oh, no. They're on the road between the Dock and the Fort?" David guessed, unease clenching deep in his gut. There weren't a lot of places to take cover between the Dock and the main Fort, especially not for animals. 

Nyassa nodded, her mouth setting in an uneasy line. "Murphy's own luck, apparently. Shattered cotter pins, broken axle, lamed beasts, you name it and it's happened." 

"Too far out to make it in, too long on the trail to make it back," David said, pulling the map to where they could both look it over. "Send Marco to scout it; we've got a little time. He's ridden long enough to have a feel for the winds, so he can tell us what to expect, compared to our younger riders. We need to know where they are exactly… damn foothills going down and then back up to sea dunes, plus they're calling for rain from the Met Tower…." Rain could be a blessing or a curse in Fall. "We'll find them, start our defense there, and sweep back toward the Fort itself until we're out of it. Can't let the Caravan come through land we didn't burn Thread out over, or else I'd just have us guard them for the time necessary and bounce back to Fort to wait for it to hit there."

Nyassa reached for Milath. _My love, warn Vizanth we're stealing Duluth and Marco to scout the incoming Fall, then ask Duluth to send Marco up, please?_

 _Of course,_ Milath agreed and went distant for a moment, bespeaking the others. _Do I call the leaders and seconds to the big room?_

 _Yes, thank you dearest,_ Nyassa answered, smiling at her queen's wits. "Marco's on his way, and the others are coming to the conference room." David gave her a tight, small smile for that.

"Thinking ahead of me again, Nyassa." He studied the contour maps, and hoped this did not prove to be a challenge bigger than his Weyr could handle.

+++++

David's Polenth was responding as best he could, but the whipsaw of currents from the hills hitting the moist heavy air of the sea was making it difficult to get the right angle on the cluster-clumps of Thread.

 _This is bad, so wrong…._ David considered calling to Sean, but it was their night, and the whole point of this separation was to protect within timezones. _Polenth, ask Milath to get the queens to go to full listening mode for their assigned wings._ This was a protocol Sean had come up with, so the queens focused on the dragons in specific wings, to be more aware of injuries faster.

 _Milath does,_ Polenth agreed, backwinging to avoid a clump and then flicking in and out of _between_ to dodge an updrafted tangle. _I do not like this, rider._

_Nor do I, Polenth. Tell the wings we will not follow the road to Fort. We prote --_

His orders were cut off as the scream of a dragon reached over winds and flaming. _Enarcath. He goes_ between _to the Weyr_ Polenth told him before David could get the inquiry out.

Brown in Isaiah's wing, David placed the name after a heartbeat, and put it out of his mind. He'd check once they were on the ground. Right now, he had to focus on keeping as many people intact as he could. 

_We only follow Thread to the point that the caravan is safe. They'll just have to cope with wandering through shells and the aftermath of Fall. We regroup at the Fort after that; tell the Wings. These winds are murder._ David let Polenth pass the word on, and they were diving again, at a clump blown sideways.

+++++

Pieter refocused his cybernetic eyes to see in the normal spectrum and pulled back from the microscope. "The tissue around the point of entry is necrotic, Weyrwoman Nyassa," he said, as gently as possible. He'd been trying to hold this young man to life for most of an hour already. "Your rider is dying, as the Thread apparently did not freeze fast enough and has damaged muscles, skeleton, and internal organs. He's holding on but that will not last."

Nyassa looked across the bowl to where Enarcath was throwing his head back and forth, bugling stridently for his rider. "Try to help him hold on long enough for us to Enarcath under control. We have no idea how a dragon handles the death of their rider." That was a lesson she would have preferred not to be part of, but it was miraculous they'd come this far without it.

"I'll do everything I can," Pieter said, reaching to his tools as Enarcath bugled again. "Good luck, Weyrwoman." 

"Thank you," she said, turning away from him to go across to the brown, Milath following her. _Love, can you -- ?_

 _He is frightened, he hears only the edge of his rider's mind,_ Milath answered, _but I will try to calm him. David comes._

Nyassa looked over her shoulder, and sure enough, she found David coming closer. He was headed for Pieter, and she lifted her hand to wave him to her instead. He followed, reaching them at about the same time that Milath finally convinced Enarcath to quiet, and whistled whimpers instead of deafening bugles washed through the air instead. "It's not good, David," she said, soft and frightened. "Pieter says he can't save Robert, Thread got in too deep." 

David's face blanched. "I should have called for reinforcements; it was freak weather, I should have…" He shuddered, and Nyassa remembered just how David had been traumatized First Fall… too late to find a better way to phrase what she'd said. Polenth called to his rider in a light croon, before going to aid Milath with Enarcath.

She reached out, catching his hand firmly. "David," she said, making him pay attention to her. "You did everything right. Groggy riders and dragons pulled from the middle of the night in this weather couldn't have done any better than we did. How do we help Enarcath?" 

The contact and the tone were just right, helping the man pull it together. "He likes one of the boys we brought in for the next clutch… Robert… Robert had taken a shine to him, trying to teach him basics in preparation for being a rider. We'll see if the boy can talk Enarcath around," David told her. "I think his name is Freddy," he added.

"Freeman?" Nyassa asked, and when she got David's nod, she placed the face. "Milath and Polenth have him for right now, I'll go get the boy." 

It would be easier to bespeak Paul through Kazeth, but she wasn't going to ask Milath to do that when she was concentrating so firmly on Enarcath. She took off at a quick jog, and found Paul and the candidates and youngest weyrlings right where she'd expected them to be, at the firestone supplies. 

Paul's eyes darted toward the other end of the Bowl, where the dragon was barely held in check by the leading pair. "Ny?" he questioned softly, moving away from the sturdy teens in their chore of replenishing the bags of firestone for next Fall.

She reached out, taking his hand. She wasn't going to screw up as badly with Paul as she had with David, and he took his responsibility as weyrlingmaster so seriously -- but this wasn't his fault. This was this damned infernal weather. "We're going to lose Robert," she answered, just as soft. "Pieter's doing what he can. David said Robert had taken Freddy under wing -- maybe, just maybe, he can help Enarcath." 

Paul took a deep breath, slow and long, before releasing it. "Freddy… Can you come here a moment?" he called over his shoulder.

The boy, one of the younger teens taken in to be ready for the next impression, came over and looked at both adults. "It's Robert, isn't it?" He'd bonded hard to the rider, who actually paid attention to him. He'd been shuffled between relatives down at the Fort, mostly ignored as they tried to carve places for themselves in the aftermath of Thread. His parents, sadly, had been early victims of that travesty.

Nyassa nodded, watching the boy's face tighten, and she spoke gently. "Will you come talk to Enarcath, try to help him? We're -- Pieter says he can't save Robert." 

Freddy hardened his face; he'd really started to feel like maybe this time he'd have family; Robert had treated him like a kid brother. He didn't cry though; tears didn't do anything for the dying and only hurt the living. "Yeah, I'll try. He listens sometimes."

"You go talk to Enarcath, and if that doesn't work… you have the day off, and tomorrow," Paul told the boy.

He opened his mouth to protest, then clicked it shut and nodded, quick. "Thank you," he said, nodded to Nyassa, and ran across the bowl to the still-whimpering brown. 

"Paul," Nyassa said softly, "I don't care what you have to do, get Tom up here. Now." 

"I'll go myself." Paul didn't ride Fall except when he was teaching Weyrlings in the air, but that didn't keep him from flight entirely. Kazeth would never catch a queen; the scores he'd taken did slow him somewhat with the way the muscle had drawn and pulled. That suited Paul fine; he'd maintained a relationship of sorts with Helena, and he certainly enjoyed Marco's company on a more platonic level. He strode back to the Weyrlings, putting a bronze in charge, then left to go get Tom… and Ju, if she would come. He didn't know if a motherly or a professional presence was going to be best to get them through this.

Nyassa watched the weyrlings for a few moments, but the bronze had them in hand, and she headed back to her queen. 

+++++

Freddy reached out, resting his hands both on the broad chest and shoulder of the mourning dragon.

_En?_

~Grief fear loss alone~ Enarcath lashed his head back and forth above the boy's head. _RIDER!!!!_

 _He… he's not well,_ Freddy admitted, the pain of that loss in the back of his mind. He didn't want to say how bad it really was, trying to be strong for Enarcath, trying to help. _I'm here?_

 _....rider…._ The tone was so utterly helpless that Freddy's heart ached.

Enarcath threw his head up once more, a keen escaping him that made Freddy step back, and he wound up falling as Enarcath leapt skyward over his head… disappearing in the same moment Robert's heart stopped.

+++++

Roy was just putting the scrub brushes back where they belonged, his daughter in the papoose-style carrier, when Brileth reared up in a listening pose. All around the clearing where other dragons were finishing early-morning meals or baths, the winged beings and their smaller 'cousins' imitated the brown.

Then, a moment later, the dragons and fire-lizards cried out their grief of their loss in one voice, a hair-raising, ear-splitting keen that made every rider, and most of their support staff, feel the grief with them.

 _Who…_ slipped from Roy to Brileth, even as he tucked in against his dragon's body, tears rising quickly.

_The man died. Enarcath is no more._

"What?" Roy said aloud, stunned, his hand tightening on Brileth, trying to understand what his dragon had just said. 

Sean, Sorka, and Rachel all came up out of the Caves at a run, Carenath, Faranth, and Chamuth all coming to join their partners, while above, Shareth blinked into reality and landed in the next moment. Dick slid off his back, all of his leathers but his pants in his hand instead of on. 

"I need to go North," Rachel said, just loud enough to carry, and Chamuth nodded. 

"We don't have Thread today or tomorrow," Sorka said, as the keening took another round. "Me, Sean… Rachel, now. The rest of you organize a meal and bring it up at your own pace. No one has to come, but those who want to… our brothers and sisters need support."

"Agreed," Sean added, already feeling doubt choking his heart. A fatality in just the second Fall Fort had handled on their own? But David had led so well when Sean had been injured…. There had to be more to learn about this. And were the dragons telling them truly? Had the rider died first?

Chamuth reached her forepaw out to gather Rachel up, wanting her rider close to help shield her from the emotions. _I will keep you safe; we do not need my harness,_ she said, balking at any more delays.

"All right, love," Rachel said gently -- she agreed, actually -- and she scrambled up onto her queen's back, settling between her ridges. Chamuth leapt into the air a bare moment later, disappearing as soon as she was high enough. 

Shih Lao came up out of the Caves with multiple sets of harness hanging from his hand, handing one to Sean and one to Sorka. "Here. Faranth said you need to go, and... Firth said -- no, never mind. We'll come behind you." 

"Bless you, Shih," Sorka said as she threw Faranth's leathers over her back, cinching them quickly. Sean matched her with Carenath, hurrying through buckling them into place. 

Many of the dragons were still keening, though it was a lower noise, and Roy saw Tommy gathering up the youngest weyrlings, Jialeth spreading his bronze wings over the dragonets. 

+++++

Nyassa escaped from where the majority of the riders had gathered, David was being cared for by others, and she needed Milath… and to be sure Milath was alright. The gray tinge had faded from dragon hides earlier than the riders had managed to drink away their shock, but Nyassa still needed to be reassured.

"Mi, are you feeling okay?"

_Yes._

"Enarcath…"

_Once hatched, they are their own dragons, my rider. You feel… closer to some people than others because of hatching connections, but this is not how we are. Protect our eggs, then let them fly._

Nyassa blinked, surprised, and then wrapped her arms around her queen's neck, holding on. _I'm glad you're all right, love._

Milath flicked the tip of her tongue against her cheek, very lightly. _It was a shock... but now it has happened, and we must all go on._

"Oh Milath, you are wonderful," Nyassa said, settling in to let her dragon's calm help her move on from the shock of loss.

+++++

Sorka was curled on one of the couches near the hearth in Fort's "queen's den" when Mariah popped in, the queen fire-lizard making a soft, worried noise as she landed with a note. 

/Sorka,/ Bay's hand read, /we can't get full understanding from Mariah's images. Would one of you please contact us when you can?/ 

"Oh, shells," Sorka swore, rubbing her other hand across her temple, and Alianne blinked at her for a moment before she realized. "Bay and Pol?"

"Yes," Sorka nodded, "I didn't even think -- does _everyone_ with a fire-lizard know?"

"Probably," Jessie said from her own spot not far away. "My ma's already sent her Ilse to ask me -- I told her I'd come when I could, Sorka, don't look at me so!" 

"Good," Sorka murmured, relaxing a little. "I'm almost surprised Snapper and half Da's fair haven't come asking, too, now that Mariah has and told us everyone with a partner knows at least something..." She shook her head, shaking that off, and pushed herself to her feet. "I'll go talk to them." 

No-one argued with her, and she made her way to the comms. It took her a moment to remember the young man's name, and then she smiled. "Hi, Jakeem. I need to talk to the Nietro-Harkannons down at Paradise." 

"Certainly, Weyrwoman," Jakeem told her, getting the lines opened and punching in the Paradise code with the direct connect for the xeno-biologists. 

Bay answered immediately, though Pol was hovering in the background, along with Jim Tillek, who had been in port when it hit them all. "Sorka, who? And how? We are so worried for you all."

"I'm sorry, Bay, one of us should have called already -- we didn't realize it was _all_ of the fire-lizards, though. It... honestly, we're still trying to figure everything out. I've been talking to the other queens, and apparently the supply train moving from the Dock to the Hold got bogged down with every kind of trouble. They were trapped in the open with Fall coming over, so David took the wings out. 

"It... it was a truly awful Fall, high winds and that kind of patchy drizzle of rain that isn't enough to kill the Thread, just enough to make it hard to see, and a badly clumping Fall. Enarcath -- a brown out of Milath's first clutch -- and his rider, Robert Jones, came back out of _between_ right under a clump that hit across the back of his neck, shoulders, and spine." 

"The rider was hit like that? Oh dear… that… _between_ didn't help him?" Bay asked, even as she reached blindly for Pol's hand against the thought of such a grisly injury. Pol took it, as Jim stayed on the edge of the couch's back, watching them and listening.

Sorka shook her head, her throat and chest aching with resurging grief and shock. "Enarcath took them _between_ , back to the Weyr, but... either it took him too long to get _between_ , or it had burrowed just wrong. Doctor Cross did everything he could to stabilize Robert, but he wasn't going to recover. David and Nyassa tried to get one of the candidates to help stabilize Enarcath, but even with -- even with Polenth and Milath both exerting themselves to help him, and the boy...

"The moment Robert died, Enarcath broke their hold and leapt _between_." She swallowed, her hand rubbing across her mouth before she knew it. "That's the first the rest of us knew that anything was wrong."

"Oh we never meant for them to be so strongly bound, just… human focused!" Bay said with horror at the thought. "To ease communications, ensure cooperation between species, not…"

Pol swallowed hard with the shock flashing through him. "I think… we introduced mercy on the breed, then, when we introduced the entropy effect in the telomeres, Bay," he said softly. "So they can age, now that we know they can't live without their partners."

Jim put his head in his hand, upset by the idea of being that strongly connected to another being that death had to follow.

Sorka bit at her lip, watching Pol and Bay and Jim. "I -- I don't know what I think, Pol, Bay. But... the dragons seem to be calming back down from it. We've Tom up here already, and one of his trainees. They're focusing on the boy and on Robert's wingmates, as the most affected. We -- we'll put something together to be read out at Omaha and Fort and the other holds." 

Bay shook her head. "If you'll let me, I think I can be the bearer of the news, so you riders can focus on each other. That's the important part, your community."

"Bay's right," Pol seconded. "You've informed a non-rider; we can pass it on. Once we discover if rider Robert Jones has family with him that needs to be informed," he added before Jim could finish opening his mouth.

"Feels like some kind of voyeurism of the tabloid sort," Jim groused, but he scratched at Mariah's neck and ridges where she'd settled near to calm his young blue, Castor.

"So many people have fire-lizards," Sorka said, looking gratefully at Bay, "they'll be concerned and upset. Thank you, Bay, Pol. You've done so much work with us, it's right for the news to come from you. I don't -- I have no idea if he's got extended family, sorry, but it should be in the records..." 

"I can find it," Bay said gently. "Go be with others, Sorka. And our hearts are there too, for all of you." She leaned back from the comm set to wait for her to sign off.

"Thank you," Sorka said again, and she flipped the comm off so that she could go back. Not to the queens, not right now, she wanted to check on Isaiah and the rest of his wing. 

+++++

 _Carenath._ Sean felt his dragon rouse from the nap he had been sharing with Faranth and Shareth. Most of the riders had gotten well and truly drunk the night before, and those who had come from the Caves had opted to stay over. He'd made himself stay quiet the day before, only lending his strength and shoulder to the riders who needed someone to lean on. Now, though, Sean wanted to talk to someone who might be able to lay out just what happened, so they could hopefully avoid the situation in the future.

Sean knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that David could lead more than adequately. This had to be something other than leader's directions!

_Yes?_

_Where is Amalath's rider?_

Carenath escaped the gold and bronze he'd shared part of the Bowl with to take a hop-glide-landing to Sean. _Up. I will take you._ Sean agreed, and swung up between ridges, letting Carenath deposit him on the ledge of the cave Kathy had taken for her own.

"Kathy?" he called from the ledge, since Amalath wasn't out there to greet.

"Sean?" her voice was a little startled, but not sleepy, and she came into view a few moments later, her black hair a cloud around her face rather than twisted into its usual braids. "Come on in." 

"Thank you. I needed to talk to someone, and neither David nor Nyassa need me asking them," Sean told her. "But … I do have questions."

Her black eyes -- so much like her grandmother's -- flared bright, her knuckles planting on each hip as her stance widened out. "Sean Connell if you think Dav -- " 

"No." Sean's firm word cut her off sharply. "I know David. I know Nyassa. They lead strongly, and that was not in question, not once, in my mind." He held her eyes. "I want to know what you observed, what was said immediately, so that we can train better for whatever threw the pattern off badly enough that a rider died, taking the dragon with him."

She relaxed at that, a trace of a smile flashing across her features. "Sorry, Sean. Just... he's already beating himself up so badly, and with it being one of Milath's hatchlings..." She shrugged, trailing off. "Come on, come sit down. I was listening for the other half of Isaiah's wing, not Enarcath's, but Alianne and I've talked." 

She had mostly the bamboo-wicker furniture they'd had in Southern, Sean noticed as he followed her back into the quarters proper, nodding to Amalath stretched out on her couch. She rumbled, flicking her tail-tip at him, and then her eyes closed again. 

"The dragons are drowsy today; seems to be a common reaction to rider hangovers," Sean commented as he settled in one chair. "I know David's taking this hard. I would too. Which is why we need an impartial, for some purposes, report that both Paul and Tommy can use to try and adapt training with to avoid that type of death in the future. You're a stronger analyst of facts; must get it from Cherry…" he added, trying to set her more at ease, because he was bypassing the chain of command. He wanted to talk to David… after he knew what he could, so he could read David's ability to go forward from this point.

"Flatterer," she told him, smiling wryly, but she did relax a little more. "All right." 

She shoved her fingers through her hair. "I'm just going to start from the beginning, the way we experienced it. I don't know what you've heard and haven't, so just bear with me, all right?" 

"Best that way, Kathy." He leaned back in the chair to be less intimidating, since he knew that even his peers could be put off by his intensity. "I'm going to just listen."

She launched into the tale of a Fall they hadn't intended to fly, the message from Desi that changed that, and the conditions on the wing, obviously pulling every detail she could for him. 

+++ 

Sean stepped into David's private room despite not having gotten an answer out of him. Polenth was on the ledge, eyes showing orange, so Sean knew he had to intervene swiftly.

"Wasn't your fault," he told the man sitting on the side of the bed, still in nothing but his briefs from a restless attempt at sleep. Sean didn't need to be a mind reader to know that Every time David's eyes closed, he was seeing Lucy Tubberman and Robert Jones both, dying from their mindless enemy.

"I should…"

"There wasn't anything, David, that could have made that Fall any less dangerous. We lost a rider, yes. And his dragon. But there was nothing you, Isaiah, or any other rider could have done to protect Robert," Sean told him firmly. "You led for a worse Fall than any I can recall. You kept the caravan alive and completely unscathed. Your casualty rate for the Fall was very low, because all of you were flying with as much caution as you could. Robert had a bad streak of timing, and it cost us a pair," Sean told his friend. "Not your fault."

David stared at him, his eyes red-limned in the glow-light and sunken into shadows... but Sean could see his words having an effect by the way his shoulders shifted, losing some of their too-taut lines, and the way he actually took a full breath. "I -- Sean, it felt so wrong, the minute we encountered the Leading Edge, but there were people out in the open. 

"I just... damnit he'd been a full rider less than a year! Less than half a year!" The words were nearly torn out of him.

"I know." Sean sat down on the side of the bed, reaching out to lay a hand on David's shoulder in a rare show of comfort. "I knew something had gone horribly wrong, because you're solid as a leader and you have good leaders under you, David. I just don't think there's anything you could have done once you had engaged to protect them all from the potential of a wrongly directed gust." Sean straightened and pulled back. "We'll sit down soon, get one of the Naval types in on it, and ask about patterns that will be more effective in crosswinds like that. To try and adapt, now we know it can happen. I think that's the only way to make Robert's memory stronger for us all, yes?"

He was relieved when David leaned into his hand and let a long sigh out, and more relieved when he actually turned towards him with a spark of interest in his eyes. "I... yeah. You're right, Sean. And -- thanks. It just... I did everything I could think of, and it. Wasn't enough. But that means there's more we need to know, I guess." 

"More to know, yeah," Sean told him. "But David…" The other Weyrleader steeled himself to say what David needed to hear, that one thing he hated to admit. "There will be more like this, when no matter what we do, how we lead, how we train… that someone won't come back, or will be grounded forever. The admiral told me that once, and while I hate it… I can see it. I wish you hadn't faced this already, Dave. But you did, and now we have to move forward anyway."

David bit into his lip, hard, then nodded slowly. "I hate it, but I know you're right, Sean. Just... we've gotten this far without it happening? And losing anyone to it -- well." He shrugged, tight and wry, admitting to his own past without saying it. "Sets me off, I guess. 

"Polenth says you're right, by the way." 

"I usually am," Sean said with utter deadpan seriousness on his face… and just that hint of humor in his eyes about it. "We'll move on, David… and we won't forget, won't stop making it safer for our dragons and our riders." He stood up from the bed. "I'll give you a call via Carenath and Polenth when I've got Ongola and Benden for a conference. Deal?"

"Deal," David agreed, then flashed a slow, weary smile. "Think I'm going to try and actually sleep, now that you've knocked sense through my head." 

Sean shrugged one shoulder at him. "Eh, you got the amateur version." He started toward the tunnel back to the ridge. "The pro at this is Dick."

"Oh, Jaysus," David said, dropping back on the bed. "Yeah. Night, Sean."

Sean drew the curtain across, paused to give Polenth a steadying rub along his eye ridges, and then mounted Carenath to go home. 

****

**Author's Note:**

> One of the things that bothered me in the early Pern stuff is that the first death of a dragon due to the death of a rider was meted out to a woman in childbirth. High tech enough to get to a colony, set a colony up, gene-engineer a new race, but that is how the author chose to show the bond caused death for the dragon if the rider went? AND they'd made it twelve years without learning this lesson, despite no true experience, building their tactics from the ground up, etc?
> 
> I'm sorry, it smelled like a Fridge, and we chose to tackle that first unexpected dragon death a different way.


End file.
